I wonder if Russia will send Pogorilaya and Gosviani out on the GP in the coming season? The way this season worked out with them skating so well and then Leonova, Korobeynikova, Makarova, Biryukova, and Shelepen all underperforming or being plagued by injury or both, it should be interesting to see what happens. Pogorilaya is 18 on the SB list so she very well may stay in the top 24 by the end of the season, Gosviani is 30 but higher than Korobeynikova and way above Biryukova and Shelepen on the list. Where Russia has a home event they could probably politik to get either girl 2 events where one could be a host pick. They are still young enough for JGP though, and Anna only turns 15 next month, but she already medaled in all the big junior events this season so it wouldn't be that surprising really. I really like these 2 skaters from Russia and hope they can keep up the good skating for the future!

Surprises this season:
Kevin Reynolds coming out of his shell at 4CC
Osmond's breakthrough and win at Skate Canada
Why Yu-Na is coming back
Plushenko winning another Russian title when his back is almost collapsed
Ross Miner ( a pleasant one)
Matt Savoie is gay? Had no idea but congrats on his marriage

I have to echo what many of you have already said - Carolina really surprised me. As much as I enjoy her skating, it had bothered me to some extent that she was resting on doing programs that didn't include the big triples. Seeing that she's got her lutz and flip back in those programs is huge. Max Aaron's success this season has also been huge. To come "out of nowhere" and win the U.S. men's title in such a deep field is nothing short of outstanding.

I also have to give a huge hats off to my own country's skaters who are really rocking it this season. Kaetlyn Osmond, Kevin Reynolds and all THREE of our top pairs teams have delivered performances that certainly exceeded my expectations this season. It really warms my heart to see skaters surprise me for the better!

Encore that! Also, Mao got her jumps back.

But what surprised me most is Patrick chooses not having a real coach! This reminds me seeing Michelle Kwuan sitting in the K&C with her dad. Not a good sign. Even if Kathy knew enough it would still put Patrick in a tremendous disadvantage, knowing that everybody else, including the judges would be quite understandably on the skeptical sided, if not being offended.

I'm surprised and disappointed none of the Junior Ice Dancing teams picked Kanye West & Jay-Z's song "Paris" for the hip hop rhythm in the short dance. That's a rap song that's massively popular right around song selection time that outright and repeatedly mentions figure skating, via its Blades of Glory samples.

Heck, I'm surprised and disappointed that not a single team picked a song that can be reasonably called rap.

I expected timid, dull and outdated song choices all around for the teams that would go for hip hop (after all, the ISU memo on the hip hop dancing/rhythm used clips from So You Think You Can Dance, a show that's about as authentic as Taco Bell, to explain the genre). But I thought at least one of them would use an actual rap song. Even something as lame as MC Hammer or Fresh Prince/Will Smith. But nope, the closest I got was Jason Brown's exhibition number.

Don't knock Jason's exhibition number-it really showed that MC Hammer can be used for skating. In fact, I can see an ice dance program to Can't Touch This, ( The ah ah ah parts would be a great place to put sets of twizzles) possibly teamed with parts of TLC's Waterfalls to make it a guy says he can do anything, and girl says don't go chasing waterfalls. I think it could be fun.

dorispulaski, I like Jason's exhibition, I think it's fun and his hip hop is more on point than most. MC Hammer is indisputably lame, though. That's why it could be used in fun/ironic/nostalgic/ironic nostalgia (after all, these junior skaters are too young to be nostalgic for Hammer Time) ways.

TLC's Waterfalls actually has a great rap section from Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez. That could've been the perfect hip hop song for a junior ice dancing team. The song had massive mainstream popularity, so that even those old, dusty skating judges should know it and be comfortable with it.

dorispulaski, I like Jason's exhibition, I think it's fun and his hip hop is more on point than most. MC Hammer is indisputably lame, though. That's why it could be used in fun/ironic/nostalgic/ironic nostalgia (after all, these junior skaters are too young to be nostalgic for Hammer Time) ways.

TLC's Waterfalls actually has a great rap section from Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez. That could've been the perfect hip hop song for a junior ice dancing team. The song had massive mainstream popularity, so that even those old, dusty skating judges should know it and be comfortable with it.